title: Substrains of 129 mice are resistant to Yersinia pestis KIM5: implications for interleukin-10-deficient mice.
abstract: Interleukin-10 (IL-10)-deficient mice are resistant to several pathogens, including Yersinia pestis. Surprisingly, we observed that heterozygous IL-10(+/-) mice also survive high-dose intravenous infection with Y. pestis KIM5 (Pgm(-)). Analysis of commercial IL-10(-/-) mice revealed that at least 30 cM of genomic DNA from the original 129 strain remains, including a functional Slc11a1 (Nramp1) gene. Interestingly, two substrains of 129 mice were resistant to high-dose Y. pestis KIM5. Resistance does not appear to be recessive, as F(1) mice (C57BL/6J x 129) also survived a high-dose challenge. A QTL-based genetic scan of chromosome 1 with 35 infected F(1) backcrossed mice revealed that resistance to KIM5 maps to a region near IL-10. Two novel IL-10(+/+) mouse strains which each possess most of the original 30-cM stretch of 129 DNA maintained resistance to high-dose infection with Y. pestis KIM5 even in a heterozygous state. Conversely, a novel IL-10(-/-) mouse strain in which most of the 129 DNA has been crossed out exhibited intermediate resistance to KIM5, while the corresponding IL-10(+/-) strain was completely susceptible. Taken together, these results demonstrate that 129-derived genomic DNA near IL-10 confers resistance to Yersinia pestis KIM5 and contributes to the observed resistance of IL-10(-/-) mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: John L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Richard I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Tapping
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D033481:Chromosomes, Mammalian; D005799:Genes, Dominant; D006579:Heterozygote; D007113:Immunity, Innate; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000276:immunology*; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D010930:Plague / Q000276:immunology*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015010:Yersinia pestis / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D016753:Interleukin-10